STYLE. 



dias, though with a chaftened impulfe, as may be feen in 

 the Elgin marbles. Indeed it appears to have been fo per- 

 feftly underftood among the artifts of ancient Greece, that 

 it fpread generally in a greater or lefs degree through all 

 their produftions, at leaft in thofe of fculpture ; and from 

 the few remains of painting left to us, it appears not im- 

 probable that the profeflbrs of that art were no lefs mafters 

 of its principles. In latter times, among the moderns, the 

 Florentine fchool made it their principal objeft of attention ; 

 and in the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Fra. Bartolomeo, 

 and more particularly of Michael Angelo, it reached in qua- 

 lity nearly to a level with the tafte of thofe from whom it 

 was adopted. Raphael attempted it in imitation of M. An- 

 gelo, and fometimes fucceeded, but it evidently was not 

 congenial to his feeling, which inclined to the beautiful and 

 graceful, more than to the lublime ; and hence it is that his 

 piftures of the Godhead rarely imprefs us with fentiments of 

 an exalted nature. 



The beautiful ftyle differs from the grand, in that it 

 requires lefs force of contrail in form and aftion, and greater 

 foftnefs of colour and efFeft. Whatever is graceful and 

 animated, void of fuperfluous parts, and yet effentially cha- 

 raSeriftic and pleafing in arrangement, combines to form 

 the beautiful. Flowing lines, graceful contrails, both in 

 form and colour, foftened lights and (hades, and rich and 

 harmonious colouring, are its principles : on them it de- 

 pends, and every departure from them neceflarily diminifhes 

 its quality. It is the fit medium for every fubjecl whofe 

 character is adapted to afford pleafure. 



As the grand llyle confifts in an elevated view of nature, 

 a conception of perfection almoft fuper-human, built upon 

 the poffibihties of creative power, afting upon known 

 and natural forms ; fo the beautiful alfo mull be fought in 

 the regions of imagination, guided by the knowledge of 

 exiiling objects, and fupported by feledlion from the varieties 

 of nature. Therefore, in order to comprehend the charadter 

 of beauty as applied to art, we muft confider the perfeftion 

 of that art, not as confifting in mere imitation of vifible 

 objects, but as requiring a feparation and choice of parts, an 

 ideal perfection, which, though it belongs to the works of 

 nature in all claffes of beings, yet is not to be found entire 

 in any given object. * Raphael, when he vfas painting his 

 Galatea, faid in a letter to his patron count Baldaffare Caf- 

 tihglione, " that not being able to find perfedl beauty upon 

 earth, he was obliged to have recourfe to ideal excellence 

 framed in his own mind." But Zeuxis took another method 

 to produce the conftellation of perfeftions recognifed in his 

 Helen ; •viz-, by feledling and combining the various beauties 

 of the mod beauteous among the virgins of Agrigentum : 

 thus furpaffmg tiie works of nature, with materials furnilhed 

 by herfelf. 



Beauty, it will be eafily conceived, is not confined to one 

 given line, or fet of lines or colours, in unifon or in contadl 

 with each other. There is neceffarily one general form of 

 the male among m.en and animals, and one of the female ; 

 diftindt in their charadler, and yet each haiing its appro- 

 priate degree of beauty : fo there is alfo a diftindlion of 

 form among different creatures of the fame fpecies. Apollo, 

 Hercules, and a Gladiator, have each diftinft qualities which 

 Hiuft be maintained in their reprefentatives, whilft grace and 

 beauty are given to their forms and a£lions : and it would be 

 as great an abfurdity to foften each to the merely beautiful, 

 and thus render them fimilar in form and charadter ; as it is 

 ignorant and grofs to trull to that which is charadteriftic 

 <Uone for a graceful and agreeable effedt. 



Though thefe, which we have fpecificd, be the diftindt 

 reparations between the grand and the beautiful ftyles in art, 



Vol. XXXIX. 



yet either may be rendered more perfedt by the addition of tlie 

 other ; and when expreflion is fuperadded, then is exhibited 

 the mod perfedt difplay of the power of art : and it is this 

 union of the beautiful and charadleriftic with the grand, 

 which conftitutes that mental and energetic application of 

 the art of painting which elevates it above the mechanical 

 arts, and entitles it to the higheft pretenfions, as it is addreffed 

 to the nobleft faculties. This is that beau-ideal fo much 

 the theme of praife and exultation among the connoiffeurs ; 

 fo univerfally felt when exhibited, fo little underftood, and 

 fo often the foundation of the groffeft follies and deceptions 

 among both artifts and amateurs. The former, purfuing 

 the pradtice of it in theory, often become the dupes of their 

 own imaginary fyftems ; the latter more often impofe them- 

 felves upon the world as men of worth by the mere cant of its 

 didtion, and are fcreened from difcovery by the general want 

 of information concerning the principles and proper objedls 

 of art. 



In this happy combination of beauty and grandeur the 

 Greeks ftill rem.ain unrivalled, as far as relates to fculpture, 

 and perhaps fingle figures in pidtures, but v>-e have very 

 little ground for conjedture how far they were able to con- 

 dudt the principle in extended compofitions in painting. 

 Among the moderns, perhaps Parmeggiano in his latter and 

 more perfedt works, as his ^iofes and his Vifion of St. Jerome, 

 has effedted more than any other painter this defirable 

 union ; and moft likely had he lived much longer the world 

 w-onld have feen the perfedtion of the art from his hands ; 

 more particularly if he had cultivated expreflion in the 

 fchool of Raphael, as fuccefsfully as he had the other branches 

 of the art in thofe of Corregio and M. Angelo. " The 

 name of Corregio," fays Mr. Fufeli, " is the fynonime of 

 whatever is graceful and agreeable in painting ;" to him we 

 are principally indebted for chiaro-ofcuro, and that luminous 

 and harmonious tone of colour, which fafcinates and delights 

 the eye by its unity, blended with richnefs and variety. 

 He may be regarded as the father of the beautiful in modern 

 art, as M. Angelo is of the grand and fublime. 



That kind of ftyle which is termed natural is, as its name 

 imports, a mere imitation of the common forms of nature, 

 without that felediion which we have pointed out as neceffary 

 to the higher ftyles of art. Of this we have many capital 

 inftances among the fm.aller antique bronzes of Fauns, 

 Nymphs, &c. and in many of the works of Titian in his 

 fecond manner. Moft of the principal portrait painters have 

 almoft neceffarily adopted it, though that branch of the art 

 admits, when highly practiied, of that feledtion of parts 

 which conftitutes the beautiful, and of being treated with 

 dignity and even fublimity, as many of the works of fir Jofhua 

 Reynolds, of Titian, and of Vandyke, fufiiciently prove. In 

 a lower degree, the Dutch and Flemifli mafters have moft 

 fuccefsfully wrought in this ftyle, as Jan. Steen, Oftade, 

 Teniers, Rembrandt, Metzu, Terburg, &c. and compenfated 

 for the want of higher qualities, by the perfedtion of their 

 arrangements and execution, and the exadtnefs of their 

 imitations. 



Of what is mean in ftyle, it is hardly neceffary to fpeak : 

 examples of it may be found in all early effays ; but in none 

 more abundantly than among the works of the artifts of 

 the German and Flemifti fchools of the 1 6th century. 

 Even in thofe of Albert Durer, meannefs is a never-failing 

 alloy, amidft all the brilliancy of imagination, and adtivity 

 of mind, they difplay ; deforming adtions and expreffions 

 oiherwife well worthy of efteeni, and extending through 

 every part of the compofitions, be it of figures, drapery, or 

 back-ground. 



Of the four fpecies of ftyle above enumerated, all others 

 4 O are 



